They can do it because Apple hasn’t optimized its organization to maximize profit. Instead, it has made the creation of value for customers its priority. When you do this, the fear of cannibalization or disruption of one’s self just melts away.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone.
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

News Limited’s Leadership Development Program (LDP) today celebrated the graduation of the class of 2011.

An integral part of the News Limited calendar, the LDP provides intensive training over six months for high potential staff in both editorial and commercial roles.

Participants get exposure to the wider operations of the company and are assigned a mentor from senior management. The program provides tools and skills to help them lead their existing teams and develop their careers further.

The core of the program is a major business project in which participants are required to develop detailed strategic plans to address real business issues and opportunities currently facing the company.

This year, the 15 participants worked in three groups to develop strategies for:

Optimising the way we use computer tablets for consumers to access our news, entertainment and information

The strategies were presented to a panel of News Limited executives and divisional management including chairman & chief executive officer John Hartigan, chief operating officer Peter Macourt and divisional CEOs.

John Hartigan said: “The LDP has been an incredible nursery for talent and allows management and the participants to explore new strategies to address some of the most interesting and challenging opportunities facing our business”.

“The standard this year was yet again very high and I am delighted that we have so many gifted managers who are ready to take on more senior roles within News,” said Hartigan.